Maybe the racing industry should listen to us

We've been doing some brainstorming in my "equine marketing" and "current equine issues" courses, and we've come up with some pretty good ideas for marketing horse racing.

Some of these may not be new, some of them might be unrealistic, but we need more positive idea creation in this industry, and since we are eager, unjaded Equine Business students, this is what we do in class.  So here goes:

Get on Sportscenter:  I try to catch the Top 10 Plays just about every day, and with the exception of the Kentucky Derby or Zenyatta in the Breeders' Cup, horse racing is never on it.  They show plenty of soccer.  There's lots of hockey.  Hell, there's quite a bit of high school basketball.  But no horse racing.  Dialed In comes from a hopeless 15 lengths back to win the Holy Bull.  That's visually impressive, even to a racing novice.  Two other Derby hopefuls, Anthony's Cross and Riveting Reason, battle neck-and-neck to the wire as they fight for a spot in the big event in Louisville.  That's exciting to watch, and it'll get the masses interested in the Derby before the first Saturday in May.  Getting on Sportscenter more often would be huge for the sport.

ESPN Ads:  While we're on the subject of Sportscenter, how about getting ESPN to do one of its This Is Sportscenter ads with a horse?  The logistics might be a bit tricky, but there's a way to do it.  How about:  Sportscenter anchor Kenny Mayne pulls into the ESPN offices, and on his parking space sign, his name is scratched out and instead, it says Uncle Mo (or whoever wins the Derby).  The horse is standing in his space.  They have a stare-down.  Mayne mutters, "Think he's own the place now," and drives off in a huff. 

Why not?  I mean, they have ducks on, for crying out loud:



All-Star Weekend: I happened to catch some of the NBA all-star stuff, and they do a great job of creating a fun event with lots of celebrities involved.  It just so happens that quite a few celebrities enjoy horse racing, and some of them actually own Thoroughbreds.  Let's have a weekend of all-star racing that includes celebrity handicapping contests, musical performances and other fun events involving celebrities.

Racing during other sporting events:  Since NBC has the Triple Crown deal this year, I'll use them as an example.  The Triple Crown coincides with the NHL playoffs, which will also be on NBC.  NHL games have pretty lengthy intermissions between periods.  On Derby, Preakness and Belmont Days, NBC could air some of the undercard races between periods, as a way of building up to the main event.  That kind of thing could also work with other sports - say, during college football games on Breeders' Cup day.

More Reality TV:  I thought Jockeys on Animal Planet was pretty good.  Too bad it only lasted a couple of seasons.  With a gazillion cable channels thirsty for more reality TV content, horse racing should step up with some new productions.  Racing is such an emotional roller coaster of a game with so many vivid characters - jockeys, owners, trainers, horseplayers.  It's tailor-made for reality TV.  Here's a clip from one of the Jockeys episodes:



Focus on the owners:  There are so many Thoroughbred owners who are highly successful business people.  Jess Jackson of Kendall Jackson winery.  Jenny Craig.  Record producer Jerry Moss.  Mike Repole of Vitaminwater fame.  A guy like Repole is an energetic character, too.  Get these people out in front of the sport.  How about a CNBC show or special that profiles the economics of racing through the lens of some of these highly successful business people?

Racing + Entertainment:  We've talked a lot in class about how racing markets itself going forward.  Are we trying to sell the sport?  Are we selling betting on horses?  Or it increasingly about gaming, with racing being a part of a larger package?  Woodbine Racecourse in Toronto is planning an entertainment complex to go along with its racing and its casino.  It'll include shopping, movie theaters, restaurants, etc.  Gulfstream in South Florida already has a similar concept going.  The future may well be in packaging other forms of entertainment along with the racing product, and there's nothing wrong with that if it brings the crowds.

Move the Breeders' Cup:  Racing is like the endless summer, except that half the time, it's the endless winter.  Every other sport has a season.  Racing just keeps going and going and going.  Create a season around the Derby trail, the Triple Crown, the major summer races and the Breeders' Cup.  How about February to Labor Day?  The Breeders' Cup could be moved to early September.  There's no reason why it has to be so late in the year, competing with pro and college football, not to mention the baseball playoffs.  Late summer is down time in the sports world and could be a ripe opportunity for racing.  Packaging it as a season with a definite culmination would be more TV-friendly as well.

Match Races:  For all of racing's history, match races have been some of the most-watched events.  60,000 people turned out to watch a North-South matchup between Eclipse and Sir Henry - in 1823!  The stands were filled for 20th century match races, too - Man O' War vs Sir Barton, Nashua vs Swaps and of course, Seabiscuit vs War Admiral:



Unfortunately, the last prominent, nationally-televised match race, between the colt Foolish Pleasure and the great filly Ruffian in 1975, ended in tragedy as Ruffian broke down and had to be euthanized.  That obviously soured many people on the idea of match races, and it was tough to get over.  But there were dozens of match races before and since that went fine.  It was just a horrible combination of events that day.  These days, some graded stakes races only have four horses in them.  Might as well just make it two.  It'd be more interesting.

My fellow students and I care about the sport, and the people and the horses in it.  Our discussions are lively and passionate, and our goal, upon graduation, is to turn some of these ideas or others like them into reality.  I'd love to hear your thoughts and your own ideas...

Racing terms and traditions

Ever wonder why a furlong is an eighth of a mile or why favorites are called "chalk"?  Or where the idea of win, place and show came from?

In addition to learning practical business concepts in the University of Louisville's Equine Business program, I've also picked up some great trivia tidbits about the origins of racing terms and traditions.  I thought I'd share a few of them here, in case you might not know some of them.

Furlong - How did it come to be that a furlong equals an eighth of a mile?  It dates back to at least the ninth century when farmers would measure how far oxen could pull a plough before giving out and needing rest.  It turns out, it was about an eighth of a mile, and this was referred to as a "furrow long," which was later shortened to furlong.

Chalk - In a time when bookies ruled the racetrack, they would write their odds on a chalkboard.  After a few people bet on a certain horse at 5-1, let's say, the bookmaker would wipe off the chalk and write in lower odds - maybe 2-1.  They constantly updated the "chalk", and the term is still widely used today to denote the favorites in a race.

The Sport of Kings:  People usually attribute this to the idea that racing was traditionally a sport for wealthy people, and that's partially true.  But the phrase actually derives from the post-Restoration era in England in the late 1600's when a series of kings who loved horse racing took the throne.  Prior to the Restoration, racing was banned.  Afterward, it literally became the Sport of Kings.

Win/Place/Show:  We have the Sheriff of Nottingham (of Robin Hood fame) to thank for this one.  Since the kings and nobles of that era loved racing, the Sheriff wanted to offer them fabulous prizes for winning races.  He issued an order to create a plate for the winner.  When the plate was brought to him, he said, "No, that's too small.  Make a bigger one."  So, a bigger plate was brought to him, and the Sheriff still wasn't satisfied.  Finally, he received a plate that was big enough in his eyes, and he decided to award that to the winner.  Not wanting to waste plates, he chose to give the smaller ones to the second and third place finishers, who were probably also nobles, and the Sheriff didn't want them to go home empty handed!

Derby: The Kentucky Derby, The Irish Derby, The Epsom Derby.  The name comes from Lord Derby, who in the late 1700's, flipped a coin with Sir Charles Bunbury, to determine whose name would be attached to a new race for three-year-old colts.  Lord Derby won the toss, thankfully, and to this day, races for three-year-old colts are called Derbies.  Otherwise, we might be getting ready for the Kentucky Bunbury every spring.

The Blood-Horse:  I always wondered why they would name a magazine, Blood-Horse.  Following the English Restoration, the kings were looking for faster horses to compete in their races.  They heard about a breed of horses in the Arabian desert.  They brought some of these horses to England to breed with their mares, and thus started the Thoroughbred, which at the time was also called a "hot-blood" or a "blooded horse."

Sweepstakes: Stakes races began with horse owners quite literally putting bags of money  - their "stakes" - on a table.  When the race was over, the winner would sweep all of the bags of money into his own. I'm guessing they optimistically brought along an extra, bigger bag for such a purpose.

Why gambling:  Why is gambling such as essential part of racing?  It boils down to the idea of "rooting interest."  As baseball grew as a sport, it was easy to find a rooting interest.  You were a fan of your hometown team.  Towns all over the Midwest had teams.  But for racing to compete, it needed to create an emotional stake in the sport like those fans of baseball naturally had.  While gambling on racing obviously predates baseball (the pari-mutuel betting system was developed in France), it became essential for American racing because when people went to the track, they didn't know the horses.  They needed a reason to pull for them, and that reason became their own money.

Why Kentucky:  How did Kentucky become the center of the breeding world?  A lot of people attribute it to the limestone in the water and its supposed positive effects on horse bones.  But a more likely reason is that during the Civil War, the armies sought out horses for battle by going door-to-door in horse states like Maryland and Virginia.  They used the power of eminent domain to confiscate every good horse they found, and many of them were Thoroughbreds.  Some of the breeders decided to take their horses over the mountains to the safety of Central Kentucky, where a few good horse farms had cropped up.  When the war was over, Kentucky had virtually the only good Thoroughbreds left.

The Kentucky Derby: For its first few decades, the Kentucky Derby received no national attention.  It was only in the early 1900's, when Louisville businessman Matt Winn, president of Churchill Downs, decided to market the race on a larger scale that it took off.  Winn would call up prominent Thoroughbred owners in other states and offer to pay all of their expenses for bringing their horse and their families to Louisville the first Saturday in May.  He would ask the owner, can your horse beat that horse in Chicago?  Oh yeah, they'd say, no doubt.  Then, Winn would call that horse's owner and say, hey, there's a guy in New York who says he can beat your horse.  Wanna come down and take him on?  And so it all began.

Hanging out with Curlin and Colonel John

One of the wonderful things about living in Kentucky is that some of the finest horses on the planet are just a short drive away.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to get up close and personal with some of the top sires in the world.  The visit to three Lexington-area stallion farms was organized by the University of Louisville Equine Business program, in which I am enrolled.

Our first stop was Lane's End, home to Horse of the Year Zenyatta, who is relaxing on the farm in preparation for her breeding career.  Unfortunately, since we only visited the stallion area, I didn't get to see Z.  But my disappointment quickly evaporated when I walked into the stallion barn.  Wow.  There's AP Indy.  Oh, look, it's Quality Road.  Mineshaft.  Lemon Drop Kid.  Smart Strike.  Rock Hard Ten.  City Zip.  Curlin.  Candy Ride.  I could go on.

It's stunning to see all of these great sires (and potentially great sires) in one place.  Check out the forelock on Quality Road.  I think it's longer than his tail!



The first stallion they brought out was the great AP Indy, whose stud fee is $150,000.  He was gracious enough to let me pet him for free.



Next up was Curlin, North America's leading money-earner and winner of the Preakness, the Dubai World Cup and the Breeders' Cup Classic.  Curlin, it seems, is anxious to get it on with Rachel Alexandra, his future mate (and also winner of the Preakness).  I got the feeling Curlin thought he was headed to the breeding shed at this moment and was a little perturbed that instead, he had to stand around being ogled by a bunch of humans.  He kept biting his handler as if to say, "Hey, I'm supposed to making sweet love right now.  Equine Business students?  Are you serious?"



Lane's End is truly close to heaven, and in fact, when horses pass on, they just stay right here on the farm.  The statue in the background of this little graveyard is of Dixieland Band, a fine stallion who died last year at the ripe old age of 29.



Our next stop was WinStar Farm, which is not only a breeding operation but a racing farm as well.  They're using some pretty fancy technology to keep horses conditioned and prevent injuries.  They have something called Equivibe, which is the use of vibration in horse therapy.  I stood in one of the stalls with a vibrating plate, and I can see why horses would love it.  Like a hot shower, I didn't want to get out!

I was also impressed as the farm manager, Tony, described his approach for bringing along young horses.  He said WinStar tries never to force them into doing something they're not ready for, like loading into a starting gate.  He wants them relaxed, not scared.  Tony said if his horses are anxious in the paddock or at the gate, they're wasting precious energy that could be used at the end of a race.  He was less enthusiastic about the polytrack surface installed at WinStar's training track.  He said it changes every time the weather does.



WinStar is home to last year's Kentucky Derby winner, Super Saver, who begins his breeding career this year.  The stallion roster also includes Tiznow, Distorted Humor, Speightstown and Bluegrass Cat, who had a monster year in 2010 as his first runners hit the track.  The best-looking of the bunch, though, was Colonel John, who went to the breeding shed last year.  Can't wait to see his two-year-olds!  Here's a short video of the Colonel being brought out.

Our final destination was Taylor Made, a smaller farm that has a partnership with WinStar.  Taylor Made stands five stallions: Old Fashioned, Northern Afleet, Forestry, Unbridled's Song (their current rock star) and Eskendereya (their future rock star). Eskendereya would've certainly been last year's Kentucky Derby favorite after his romping wins in the Fountain of Youth and Wood Memorial, but his racing career was cut short by injury.  He certainly looks like he could be a phenomenal sire:



Unbridled's Song has produced a host of Grade 1 winners, including Zensational, Midshipman and Songandaprayer.  And he's gorgeous!  Take a look:

It's pretty incredible to get up close to these famous sires.  As someone once said: A lovely horse is always an experience... It is an emotional experience of the kind that is spoiled by words.

So, I'll stop typing now.